How to Plan a Budget

Budgets are the hardest things to keep up with, when you have screaming kids that want everything they see in sight and you are a fan to Starbuck's or you see a really cute outfit in a store window, that just have to have.

Planning a budget and keeping yes is hard, but also it will help you to keep your finances organized and helping you to save money for those emergencies that happen to pop up.

From experience, I always find it hard to start a budget when you have things come up like you fall behind on bill and the bill collectors demand the money right away before demanding legal action. Also, when your car breaks down and that is your only means of transportation and you have to take Tim to band practice and Suzy to chearleading practice and you have to go to work in order to keep the money coming in.

Before doing any of this you should grab a pen and a paper and a calculator, your paycheck stub, a box of envelopes, and a small writing tablet.

Well here are a few tips on how to create a budget, start a budget, and keep that budget.

How To Create A Budget

-First you should gather are your bills that you need to pay. Credit card bills, loans, mortgage/rent, etc.

-After gathering all your bills then start writing down how much is each bill a month and when it is due.

-Then figure out how much you make a month if you don't know already. Here's how to figure it out. Figure out how much you make a week and then multiply that by four and there you have your monthly expenses.

-Then along with your bills, in that list add in food expenses and miscellaneous and how much you would need on those a month.

-Now it is time to start seperating each bills into four piles based upon the time that they are due. Such as what bills are due at the first week of the month, then the second, third and fourth and seperate them into these seperate piles.

-After your bills have been seperated add the first week and second week bills together and the same with the third and fourth week bills.

-So after seperating your bills into two piles you should be all set.

-Divide the amount you make in a month into two.

-Grab your calculator and add all the bills fore those two weeks and then subtract
it from the amount that you make a week.

-After you are finish with getting that information all together and worked out each 2 weeks you should have money left over for emergencies. The miscellaneous money should be used for things you might want or you kids want. Basically for whatever and if you don't use it, you can either let it rollover to the next two weeks miscellaneous or put it with the emergency money.

-Next thing grab your envelopes and label them for each bill. One envelope per a bill and a extra one for emergency money.

-After that label your small tablet as expenses, this is where you will write down what you spent your money. Just to keep track.

Getting Started

Basically, you should be able to get started the next week around. Getting started right away is best so you don't seem to procastinate and never get started at all. Remember that keeping track of your expenses would be best as well

Keeping Your Budget

Sometimes keeping a budget can be hard as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, but if you follow these easy and simple steps you should have no troubles at all.